Team Leadership, Team Diversity, Team Power: Part 2

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on transforming your team into an efficient and effective part of your organization. The power of a team starts with leadership, is emboldened and boosted by team diversity, and the impact is felt when those two work together for a common mission. This post is about building a better team: Diversity.

Leading in today’s healthcare environment is tough. Second time in this series we have said that statement. As the leader, you are entrusted with the care of your followers, you are responsible for the mission of the organization, and you plan for the strategic future of the organization and the people who make it happen. Nothing about this is easy. But we can do better.

As you move into a leadership position or take over a leadership role, you may or may not have had the opportunity to build your team. Neither one is necessarily a preferred method. Adapting and learning who is on your team gives you great wisdom and insight into the organization. The goal in either instance is to discover your team members’ identities such as their background, experience, leadership capability, education preparation, and ability to work on a team. Once you have completed this assessment, you then can start moving your mission and growing your team.

A team in place means there is continuity. The leaders who work for you should have knowledge and understanding of the mission, the challenges the organization faces, and clearly can advocate for what is working well. This allows you the leader to adapt, complete an assessment, and then move forward. Transition can be smoother.

Coming into an organization and selecting a new team allows for immediate change and impact. This can be a preferred method if the organization had critical issues like substantial patient safety process issues or true toxic work environment. As a general rule, I do not advocate on a sweeping change of leadership just because there is someone new at the top unless it is related to serious issues. The disruption this type of change creates unneeded chaos, emotional response from followers, and many times makes it impossible for followers to trust the new leadership.

As you begin leading in your new role and start to adjust the organization to meet the mission and your vision, there will always be a time to select new leaders. Who you pick and how you pick them will have great impact on the future of your team, the followers and organization. Leading is not for everyone.

In healthcare, clinical expertise does not translate or equal leadership capability outside the clinical decision making venue. Leadership, more specifically leading people and organizations, takes specific core competencies which do not come from clinical training or time. It does come from a willingness to grow, active learning in leadership, and the persistence to practice new skills.

In my experience and what I have discussed with leaders in and out of healthcare, a variable many do not appreciate or identify as value-added is the importance of creating a diverse team to lead. And let me be clear, in the use of the term diversity, I am taking a more inclusive viewpoint on the word diversity then to just mean gender and race. It would be pretentious to think those are the only diversity variables needed in healthcare today.

Diversity for discussion is inclusion of multiple dynamics of what makes up a leader in today’s healthcare. The complexity of healthcare operations demands we provide leaders with a diverse background to meet demands and ensure we provide the highest care possible, bring zero harm to the patient, and promote a safe environment for everyone in the care cycle.

Diversity I am discussing includes diversity of disciplines, educational preparation, social and economic dimensions, generational inclusions, and geographic differences to name a few. The power of selecting and growing a diverse leadership team means you are setting your team and organization up for success.

The use of a diverse team means there is more effectiveness in leadership and outcomes. Diverse team looks at objective data more accurately and processes it more clearly. They also become more innovative in their approach to solutions. This is a byproduct of the power of different thinking and viewpoints have on decision making.

Another power of a diverse team is the vast experience they bring to the organization. With all the lived experiences, education, and upbringing, having a diverse team brings all these varied experience together to work for your mission. The creation and options for solutions then is not limited.

A diverse team also benefits the organization by attracting more talent to the team. Everyone in a certain group wants to be represented on the leadership team. Diverse team helps with recruitment of new talent, managing and growing the talent pool, developing other leaders into areas where they may not have considered before, and motivates others to grow and improve diversity in the workplace. Success can breed success.

Let me say, there is no defined quota or percentage of what a diverse team should be to make an impact in an organization. You could have an entire team of same gender and race and have a diverse team if there are other differences in their value to the team. The goal with including diversity in selection is to bring around more impact and effectiveness to your team.

Building a diverse team means to look at your bias and selection process for looking for new leadership talent. You’ve got to identify your own limitations and how you can look for diversity and its importance to your team. A diverse workforce and leadership creates innovative and impacting results for your organization and meeting your mission. But it doesn’t happen if you are not deliberate to look for those diverse backgrounds. Leading is tough. Don’t handicap yourself because you have not considered branching out and diversifying your team.

Leading with you!

Dean

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